Dublin is one of the most fun cities I have ever visited. Almost every bar had a live band playing Irish music. Everyone in the bar was on their feet dancing and sining along. My favorite of the songs was "What do you do with a Drunken Sailor". We went from pub to pub trying a new beer at everywhere we went. My favorite was Guinness. I said it tasted like a beer milkshake but my friends disagree.
I took a tour of the Guinness factory while I was there. I am usually not a huge fan of tours, and I was expecting it to feel like a grade school fieldtrip, but it wasn't. I was amazed at the size of the place and t he tour was very interactive. There was a whole floor dedicated to the history of Guinness advertisement. That was my favorite part of the tour (yes, I liked it even more than the floor with the free beer). There was a room that played ever Guinness commercial from every country that Guinness has ever made. I loved watching how the location and the year of the commercials showed what people in that time and place valued and who the commercial was targeting. There was also a display of all of the different bottles and cans Guinness has been sold out of.
The next floor had tasting rooms, here we tried a sample of a new beer Guinness was working on that was not on the market yet. After that we went to another tasting room where they taught us the proper way to drink Guinness, inhaling through your nose, taking a big enough sip that it leaves a mustache, holding it in your mouth for a moment, swallow, and then exhale. After this we were sent to the Academy to learn how to pour the perfect Guinesse. Despite what many of you may think, this is not the first class I have attended abroad. It was trickier than I expected, Benji's over flowed and mine had far too much foam. We both failed the class. After we poured our Guinness we drank them. From there we went to the photo both where they printed our faces onto our beers. We then took our selfie beers to the rooftop bar. That is where I ran into my friend, Troyn, from high school who I had not seen in three years. We all went Pub crawling that night, starting at the very famous Temple Bar.
From Dublin we took a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher. I was astounded by the size of the cliffs and how long they stretched on for. There wasn't much security or fencing at the cliffs, I am surprised more people don't fall. Or maybe they do and we just don't hear about it.
I made sure to try all of the traditional foods in my time in Dublin; fish and chips, Irish stew, meat pie, and lots of beer. Dublin is a gorgeous city with so much character, of all of the places I have gone so far this is top of my list for places I want to return to.
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